Woman charged in mother's death spotted in Atlantic City days after body discovered

FAIRFIELD — In the days after her mother's death, Tina Lunney was spotted on surveillance footage at a local library and then, miles away, in an Atlantic City casino.

Details of how and where the Fairfield woman disappeared to after her mother was found dead became the focus of today's testimony in Lunney's ongoing trial in Newark.

Lunney, 45, is charged with strangling her mother, Marie Zoppi, in the Fairfield home the two shared with Lunney's husband and two children.

Prosecutors say Lunney killed her 81-year-old mother on or about July 23, 2009, after driving her family into serious debt and then used Zoppi's credit cards to pay off outstanding bills. They say she disappeared the day after the murder and took a bus to Atlantic City.

In court today, a librarian from the Bloomfield Public Library identified surveillance footage which shows a woman prosecutors say is Lunney in the children's section writing on the back of library fliers. The contents of those letters have not been read to jurors but Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Simonetti said in her opening statement they were goodbye letters to family members.

Lunney is also shown in surveillance footage at the Trump Marina casino on July 24, 2009, at around 4 p.m.

Lunney's ex-husband previously testified he suspected his wife may have had a gambling problem. Unbeknownst to Chris Lunney, his then-wife had exhausted his $30,000 inheritance and had spent away savings. The family was months behind on its mortgage and PSE&G had cut off service.

Lunney eventually returned to Fairfield and was spotted walking along Long Acres Road, where she was picked up by police early on July 27, 2009, after her family filed a missing person's report.

After she was picked up, Lunney admitted to the killing in a statement to police, prosecutors say.

Defense attorney Albert Kapin has argued the confession was false, brought on by the emotional stress of bankrupting her family and finding her mother dead.